


Revelations in Purgatory

by pherryt



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Beta!dean, Figuring Things Out, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Multi, Purgatory, Scents, Soulmarks, Soulmates, True Mates, a/b/o dynamics, alpha!benny, disbelief, omega!cas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 02:29:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18489436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pherryt/pseuds/pherryt
Summary: Dean and Cas are trapped in Purgatory, Benny at their side, when Benny finally speaks up. Dean can't believe his ears, but Cas is nodding along like something's just clicked into place.What the hell is going on? And is now really the time to be getting into this?





	Revelations in Purgatory

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: beta’s true mate – “Woe be to the true mate of a beta, for their mate will not know their scent”
> 
> p.s. all line breaks are POV shifts

When Castiel had first laid a hand on Dean in hell, he’d been lost.

Not that he’d realized that at the time, of course. Things were too chaotic, Dean’s soul suffused with too much blood and pain and guilt.

When he rebuilt Dean’s body, Castiel didn’t deviate from his course, from the blueprints he’d been provided – except to perhaps smooth out a few ‘wrinkles’ along the way, removing scars and scar tissue, all those remnants and reminders of old injuries, returning Dean’s body to what it should have been, if life hadn’t abused it so badly.

It wasn’t until he had his own vessel, and he’d advanced on Dean in that old barn, that something began to niggle at him. It hadn’t taken much to draw Castiel to the irreverent hunter – but his human senses had been too new, then, to understand  _why_.

It wasn’t until Purgatory, and Benny, that Castiel finally understood.

It was one of those rare moments of peace, far and few between once Castiel joined Dean and Benny, when Benny - who made Castiel’s hackles raise nearly instantly but still drew him in in the same manner as Dean did, leading Castiel to trust where he had no good reason to trust – finally said something that lead to one of the most revelational conversations Castiel had ever had.

It had never occurred to him to pay attention to the secondary gender of his vessel or of Dean’s. Why did it matter, when being an Alpha, Beta or an Omega had nothing to do with your ability to fight monsters and demons?

Benny was an Alpha. Castiel’s vessel had been an Omega and the longer he wore it, especially with Jimmy gone, the more he became comfortable in it. Dean was a Beta but he acted by turns as Alpha and Omega, as the situation demanded, his orientation seeming fluid by whims and circumstance. It was a fascinating thing to watch once Castiel had realized that most humans held the misconception that being one or the other pigeonholed folks into certain behaviors.

Still, their secondary genders and all the baggage that came along with it was something he barely pondered upon, especially not as it might have pertained to him – not until Benny.

Castiel was looking around nervously, though he did his best to remain impassive, trying to feel out with his tamped down grace, unsure how long this reprieve from the monsters would last and desperate to keep Dean as safe as he could.

Though with the Leviathans growing closer with every step – one of the few things he could feel without straining – Castiel was unsure how likely that would be, not if he stayed with them. But if he didn’t, well, Dean had already proved he wouldn’t take the out without Castiel by his side.

The three of them had been traveling together for a while now and the closer they got to the escape hatch, the more attention they seemed to draw. It was like monsters somehow could feel it, could feel what it meant, though they couldn’t use it.

If Benny wasn’t lying - which Castiel was desperately hoping he wasn’t, for Dean’s sake - they could get Dean out of there, at least. Not him, perhaps, but Dean.

 _He_ didn’t deserve to be there. Not like Benny. Not like Castiel.

Castiel shifted again, torn out of his thoughts, turning to glare at the vampire when he snorted from his place against a tree a bare handful of feet away, leaning back with a casual grace Castiel was surprised at himself that he’d noticed.

* * *

 

“You two are really fucking clueless, aren’t ya?” Benny drawled.

Dean and Castiel both looked at him, nearly twin expressions of confusion on their faces, though Castiel’s had a hint of eye rolling that he’d barely held back as well.

“Excuse me?” Dean asked.

Benny pushed off the tree and ambled towards the two of them. “Ya can’t smell it, can ya?”

“Smell what, Benny? You’re talking in riddles.”

“You,” Benny pointed at Dean with his blade. “And him.” He shifted to point at Castiel. “And me.”

“If you’re tryin’ to tell me we stink, well, newsflash, but I think we’re already well aware,” Dean said.

Benny didn’t hold back from rolling his eyes. “ _Your_ obliviousness, I understand,” he said to Dean. “You’re a Beta, after all, and ya got no sense of smell.” Benny tapped his nose, then pointed at Castiel. “But him? The angel? Millennia old and you don’t know how to use that nose of yours?”

Castiel frowned. “I suppress most of my senses. They are… unpleasant, most of the time, and a distraction I can ill afford at others.”

“Even here, angel? Where your powers are being subdued?” Benny asked. “You try to hide it, but I don’t think we woulda caught up to you otherwise.”

“I…” Castiel tilted his head and his frowned deepened. “No, of course not here. But apparently, you already knew that.”

“What do you smell, angel?”

“My _name_ is Castiel,” Castiel said through gritted teeth, eyes narrowing in annoyance.

Benny grinned, but refrained from saying anything about how much that turned him on. instead, he pointed out, “Dean calls ya Cas.”

“ _Dean_ is my friend.”

“Jesus fucking Christ. Can we get to the point? What’s so all fired important that you had to bring this up now, while we’re running for our lives?” Dean asked.

“Tell him to answer the question. What does  _he_ smell?” Benny insisted, staring at Dean while pointing at the angel.

Dean rolled his eyes, his whole body moving with him, and turned to face Castiel. “Humor him. Maybe then he’ll get to the point.”

“I smell rancid flesh and blood – old and new,” Castiel said. “What else do you expect me to smell in a place filled with death?”

“Underneath all that, angel. Not Purgatory’s scent. I’m talkin’ about us. Me an’ Dean. _What do you smell?”_

Startled, Castiel stepped closer to both of them and inhaled. “I… Benny… you… you smell like the sea. Fresh air, salty tang, a verdant breeze. Dean is leather and gunsmoke and apple pie. I… I don’t understand. I should not be smelling any of these things here. We have no guns, there is no sea, and… it’s impossible.”

“Well of course it’s impossible angel, so why do ya think ya might be smellin’ that? And Dean isn’t?”

“How do you know that?” Dean asked sharply.

“Am I wrong, brother?”

Dean inhaled, his eyes going wide. “No, I don’t smell any of that, ‘cept maybe the leather,” he said, fingering his jacket, the obvious explanation. He stared at Benny long and hard. “What do _you_ smell, Benny?” Dean asked sharply.

“I smell the same of you as Cas does. As for him, he’s all thunder and lightning and the storm across the waves. I ain’t ever smelled anyone like either of you before, ‘cept one person who came close once,” Benny admitted. “But you both outshine her like the sun dazzling over the open water. She was a pale reflection of moonlight, comfortable and cool, and both of you burn hot, blazing, like if I touch you, you’ll take me with you.”

“What are you saying?” Dean was shifting uncomfortably now, uncertainly.

“I’m sayin’, that I defied my creator for her, for what I thought we had together, and I died for my trouble, and yet… what I’m smelling, what I’m feeling here, for  _both_ of you, is so much stronger than that.”

“You think we’re true mates,” Castiel realized.

“There’s no way,” Dean said, shaking his head. “Beta’s don’t get true mates. What you’re saying is… you’re lying! Playing some sort of game!”

“I ain’t lyin’, cher. You heard feathers. He’s mighty quiet over there, didn’t ya?”

Dean turned to stare at Castiel, who was looking away guiltily.

“Cas?”

Castiel flinched. “I didn’t know, Dean. I’m sorry.”

“No, no, no, this can’t be happening…” Dean muttered.

“Dean, think about it,” Benny said gently. “Everything you do proves you already know it on some level. The way you tore this place apart lookin’ for your angel. How quickly and easily you accepted me,  _trusted_ me, when you had no reason to do so, when every instinct you’ve been using for 30 plus years was screaming at you  _not_ to. A part of you already knew. I can see already how devastated you would be if you lost Castiel. I suspect you’d be broken if you lost both of us and cher… I already feel the same way, even if feathers over there is an annoying monster magnet.”

“Beta’s don’t get True Mates,” Dean protested weakly.

“They do,” Castiel said. “But most of them never find theirs, the lore on them lost to humans long ago, unable to use the same senses everyone else does, not knowing what to look for instead.”

“How come you never said anything, Cas?”

“I didn’t know. I don’t… this wasn’t…” Castiel gestured down at his body, the dirty white scrubs, the torn trenchcoat. “I have had a mere 5 years in this body compared to millennia in my own. I suppressed all my senses as often as I could. I didn’t even think it could apply to me. I’m an angel, not human. Not even once human, like Benny is. I just didn’t realize… but he’s right. Now that I know what I’m looking for, Benny’s right.”

* * *

 

Dean couldn’t –  _wouldn’t_ – believe this. It was impossible. Not only to have a True Mate, but Benny was saying he had two? And Castiel _agreed?_

“How do ya think I found ya so fast?”

“You said being human was attracting the monsters,” Dean said flatly. “That I basically shine out here like a tasty snack begging to be eaten.”

“You do shine, Dean. Your soul is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen but a monster can’t see your soul,” Castiel admitted. “Benny didn’t find you that way.”

“I was drawn to you before I even knew you were human,” Benny said. “Didn’t know till I got closer what you really were. And feathers, there… how close on your tail was Dean the whole time?”

“Very. It was all I could do to stay one step ahead of him, to draw the Leviathans away so he wouldn’t be in any danger.”

“See that, cher?”

Dean shook his head. “No, True Mates can’t resist each other – the longer they spend time in each other’s company, the harder it is. And Cas and I have known each other a fucking long time.”

“You like bein’ dense, Dean? True Mates  _can_ resist each other – it helps if one of them can’t scent a fucking thing, an’ with you bein’ a Beta, and him suppressing his senses… well, you resisted pretty damn well, I’d say. But that ain’t true for him anymore and it’s _never_ been true for me. Hell, Dean, I got a vampiric nose – my senses are ramped up and I got two of ya to contend with.”

“Why now? Why say something  _now_ , if it’s been that hard for you?” Dean asked suspiciously.

“Cause y’all are drivin me crazy.” Benny threw his hands up in the air. “You may be able to resist me and Cas, but Cas’s startin’ to have a difficult time doin’ it – I suspect only his angelic willpower is helping him there – and I can’t take it anymore.”

“You’re wrong. You’ve been a vampire so long, you’ve forgotten how to use those senses. You’re hungry. I’ve seen you staring at me, Benny. I’ve seen the hunger, that’s just your vampiric need to feed,” Dean bit out.

Benny growled and spun on his heels, stalking away. He reached the tree he’d been leaning against earlier and punched it, hard.

Dean flinched at the sight, an urge to go over and make sure Benny wasn’t hurt washing through him.

Fuck, what if Benny was right? Cas was agreeing with him and Dean rarely saw them agree on anything, always sniping at each other, so if they were burying the hatchet, then didn’t that mean… Dean shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs.

“Dean,” Castiel said softly, placing a hand gently on his shoulder.

“What other signs?” Dean asked, swallowing, looking between Benny’s back and his tense shoulders and Castiel’s grave, scruffy face. “You said we lost the knowledge – what other signs?”

“Beta’s always have 2 True Mates,” Castiel said. “For, a variety of reasons. Also, we… develop a bond, empathic, profound – “

Dean jolted, a memory rising to the surface.

Castiel smiled softly. “I should have known then, but Benny was right. I was just as oblivious as you, thinking the rules didn’t apply to me. After all, I didn’t even have a physical body until a few years ago.”

“Is – is that it?”

Shaking his head, Castiel went on, “No. The scents – Benny was right about that. You can’t smell it, and we can and there’s nothing here that could even come close to recreating what we smell off of you.”

“But people smell things on Alphas and Omegas all the time,” Dean said.

“It’s not the same. It’s like watching someone smile or frown. It’s body language for your nose. You don’t smell like pie if you’re happy, or sewers if you’re mad. The smells are… something else, a wavelength that your brain tries to decode, only everyone interprets them differently. One person will smell pie on anyone who’s happy while another person smells old books and another peppermint. But it doesn’t matter who they’re smelling, the scent is the same association for each emotion. The fact that Benny and are getting the same smells off of you? that doesn’t happen. We’re not picking up emotions, we’re picking up _you_.”

* * *

 

Dean stared at Cas like he was mad. Which was unfair because he wasn’t, not anymore. Though, as he’d said when Dean had found him… the mad ones don’t think they are, so maybe he was?

“That’s all, highly circumstantial,” Dean said flatly. “Anyone can convince themselves what they smell is different, that they have a profound bond with someone. It’s not concrete proof.”

Cas stepped forward. “No, it’s not. The final sign before anyone commits to a mating is a mark that will appear on the skin of those who are meant to bond, when a certain… ritual… is upheld.”

“A ritual?” Dean asked. “Let me guess, something overly complicated.”

“Nah, if my memories are right, it’s pretty damn simple, actually,” Benny said. Dean jerked slightly at Benny’s sudden proximity and he glanced between the vampire and the angel hesitantly, biting at his lip.

Castiel’s eyes dropped to Dean’s lip. Benny was right. The ritual was simple. Very, very simple. “A word and a kiss,” he said. “It’s all we need to confirm what Benny’s saying.”

“That’s it?” Dean’s eyebrows went up and Castiel couldn’t blame him the disbelief. They were silent a long moment and Castiel had a brief thought towards the fact that through all this, they were still in purgatory and their respite couldn’t last. “A single word?”

Castiel paused. “Technically, two,” he conceded. “Do you wish to try?”

Dean breathed out slowly and finally nodded. “Fine. Fine! Let’s just do this so I can prove you both wrong.”

“We ain’t wrong, brother,” Benny said.

“If you aren’t, then I’m not your brother, am I?” Dean snarked and Benny laughed. Dean turned back to Cas.  “All right, what do we say?”

“Anima vinculum – Latin for – “

“Soul Bond, yeah, I got it. How do we do it?” Dean shifted nervously and Castiel caught his chin gently.

“Say the words as one, then we kiss. Then each of us repeat this with Benny. The marks will appear on our wrists if we’re right. Are you ready?”

Dean nodded. “What the hell, what do I got to lose?” he leaned forward, their noses brushing and together they spoke the words, lips brushing as they fell into the kiss.

* * *

 

If he were honest with himself, Dean had wanted to kiss Cas for a damn long time, the feelings he’d grown for the angel had taken him by surprise but the moment had never seemed to be right, Dean had never felt worthy enough to dare to kiss an angel.

Then Benny had come along and when he’d felt the same urge to kiss the vampire, Dean had right then and there decided there was something severely wrong with him.

And here they were, explaining that there wasn’t, that this was God’s plan – it kinda had to be, right? If he created them and all this true mate bullshit in the first place? And part of him wanted to say screw God's plan - had essentially been doing that for how long, actually - but he  _wanted_ this more than he could have ever believed.

He couldn’t believe this was happening. Holy shit, he was finally kissing Cas and it was like lightning shot through Dean, a searing warmth pulsing on his wrist. He pulled away, dazed, Cas nudging him towards Benny. The warmth shifted, burning hotter as he and Benny murmured the words and kiss and Dean gasped into it, feeling his head swim.

Dean watched Cas and Benny as the final connection slipped into place and his eyes were drawn down to his throbbing wrist – And there’s a mark there. Two actually, one for Cas and one for Benny. Dean traced the marks reverently: a feather – for Cas obviously – and a wolf which had to be Benny. The wolf felt right, dangerous yet loyal. He looked over at their arms, eyes narrowing down to the marks on _their_ wrists.

Benny’s also got Cas’s feather and Cas has Benny’s wolf and on both of them is a pierced heart and he swallows. The meaning behind that could be so many things – how damaged Dean is, for one, or how he’s been caught by cupids’ arrows or… well, anything but it doesn’t matter because the proof is there.

Just like they had said.

Before any of them can say anything more, though, their moment of peace is broken, Cas’s head shooting up first to stare behind them, then Benny whipping around into a fighting stance, his weapon at the ready. Dean lined up with them, his eyes darting around, gripping his own strange, stolen blade tight.

Their lives had changed in an instant and yet _nothing_ had changed. They were together, fighting side by side.

Just where they belonged.

Everything else would follow.

 


End file.
